1. Field of the Invention
The inventions disclosed and taught herein relate generally to hose couplings for use with vacuum accessories and attachments, and more specifically, are related to vacuum cleaner connections that allow the vacuum accessory to swivel while maintaining the position of the connected hose or wand.
2. Description of the Related Art
Couplings are used to releaseably attach hoses to various types of apparatuses. In a wet/dry vacuum cleaner, for example, a coupling is typically used to connect the hose to a vacuum tank or canister. A second coupling may be used to attach the remaining end of the hose to an accessory such as a vacuum attachment. The engagement of the coupling and the hose is preferably releaseable so that the hose may be quickly attached to and removed from the vacuum tank, and so that various vacuum attachments may be used as needed. In addition, it is advantageous for the couplings to allow the hose to swivel, to position the vacuum attachment as needed and to prevent the hose from kinking during use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,998 discloses a swivel hose coupling 1 for attachment to a flexible hose 2. The swivel hose coupling 1 includes a swivel insert 3 for attachment to the hose, and a swivel hose end piece 4 which is rotatably connected to the hose end by the swivel insert. The swivel insert 3 is molded in the form of a sleeve 6 with an internal thread 7. The hose 2 has an external spiral thread 5 which is complementary to the internal thread 7 of the swivel insert 3 so that the swivel insert 3 may be screwed onto the end of the hose 2. To assemble the swivel hose coupling 1, the swivel hose end piece 4 must be heated to make it pliable so that the swivel insert 3 can be pushed into the end piece 4. As a result, the swivel hose coupling is overly complex and difficult to assemble, and uses a threaded connection, which may become unscrewed, to engage the hose and the coupling.
Vacuum cleaners and, in particular, those of the canister type typically include a nozzle assembly for coupling with a wand that, in turn, connects to the canister. Because it is advantageous to manipulate the wand relative to the nozzle assembly for various reasons, many in the art have proposed different types of specialized connectors for this purpose. An example of one such arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,429 to Martin, et al., which includes a swivel-type connector for enabling rotational movement of a handle associated with the wand. While the arrangement shown in the '429 Patent does indeed permit the desired rotational movement, it is not without limitations. For one, the swivel connector itself includes the electrical coupling for the wand and, thus, requires a tubular piece intermediate the wand and the swivel connector to provide the desired ability to rotate. This type of arrangement also includes many parts to achieve the coupling, and, thus, would be not only complicated to use, but also expensive to produce and maintain.
Accordingly, what is needed is a swivel-type assembly that overcomes the problems described above. The inventions disclosed and taught herein are directed to swivel linkages for use with vacuum accessory tools, wherein the linkages serve as multi-axis swivel assemblies.